“There are two halves to every family. We all come from two strains of thought, twin strands of experience,” writes Greyeyes.

From this starting point, an eloquent narrative emerges in which the author and narrator peels away the layers of a family’s oral history, moving from joyous childhood memories, to unspoken truths and the harsh secrets held by every family.

Austere like the land from which this story emerges, Nôhkom remembers the writer’s grandmother, Margaret Greyeyes, but it’s also about the writer’s late father, George Greyeyes. Combining text and dance, this theatre work moves through complex moments in the life of the author’s father, who grew up on the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation in Saskatchewan during the Great Depression. It revolves around remembered experience, a mysterious affair, and one extraordinary winter, which tested nôhkom to her very soul as she found herself alone, living in a canvas tent caring for her two small children.

Moving through the visceral history of Canada’s Indian Residential school system, the fragile nature of memory, and the exquisite power of dance, Nôhkom is a portrait of resilience and a testament to the potential of forgiveness.